Can Institutional Reforms be Made Meaningful?

In June, Kenyan president William Ruto published a piece in the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s flagship magazine headlined “A Consensus is Forming for IMF Reform.” At the time of its publication, Nairobi was engulfed in protest against an IMF-approved tax increase, with tens of thousands of Kenyans refusing the imposition of austerity programs. One could be forgiven a strong sense of déjà vu: more austerity measures, more street protests, more calls for reform.

Seventy years after Bandung; more than 50 years after the introduction of Special Drawing Rights; nearly thirty years after a worldwide movement for a debt Jubilee; and amid today’s renewed calls for a New International Economic Order—how can this perpetual push for reform be better understood? What were the technical, epistemological and political forces that motivated, or impeded, reform efforts in the past? And how should these many historical cycles of reformism and their results be assessed for today’s global governance system?

On Friday, February 21 from 12-1:30PM ET, join us for a conversation with experts on whether and how institutional reforms can be made meaningful. This includes what historians might learn from the concerns of today’s policymakers and reform advocates, and what reformers might take away from longer-term historical analyses.

This is the first in a series of webinars co-hosted by the Boston University Global Development Policy Center and the History and Political Economy Project, whose Histories and Futures of Global Governance initiative brings together historians, policymakers, reform advocates and others to address why and how history matters for global governance reform efforts.

Learn more about the History and Political Economy Project at https://www.hpeproject.org/

Speakers:

- Adriana Abdenur, Co-founder, Plataforma CIPÓ

- Richard Kozul-Wright, Visiting Fellow, Global Economic Governance Initiative, Boston University Global Development Policy Center

- Jamie Martin, Assistant Professor of History and of Social Studies, Harvard University

- Quinn Slobodian (moderator), Professor, International History, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University

Back to Calendar